A feature of the adaptive immune response is the ability to generate a wide diversity of binding molecules, e.g. T cell antigen receptors and antibodies. A variety of molecular mechanisms exist to generate initial diversity, including genetic recombination at multiple sites. Armed with this initial repertoire of binding moieties, naïve B and T cells circulate where they can come in contact with antigen. Upon exposure to antigen there can be a positive selection process, where cells expressing immunological receptors having desired binding properties are expanded, and may undergo further sequence modification, for example somatic hypermutation, and additional recombination. There can also be a negative selection process, where cells expressing immunological receptors having undesirable binding properties, such as self-reactivity, are deleted. As a result of these selective processes, the repertoire of binding specificities in an individual sample can provide a history of past antigenic exposures, as well as being informative of inherent repertoire capabilities and limitations.
Adaptive immunological receptors of interest include immunoglobulins, or antibodies. This repertoire is highly plastic and can be directed to create antibodies with broad chemical diversity and high selectivity. There is also a good understanding of the potential diversity available and the mechanistic aspects of how this diversity is generated. Antibodies are composed of two types of chains (heavy and light), each containing a highly diversified antigen-binding domain (variable). The V, D, and J gene segments of the antibody heavy-chain variable genes go through a series of recombination events to generate a new heavy-chain gene. Antibodies are formed by a mixture of recombination among gene segments, sequence diversification at the junctions of these segments, and point mutations throughout the gene. The mechanisms are reviewed, for example in Maizels (2005) Annu. Revu. Genet. 39:23-46; Jones and Gellert (2004) Immunol. Rev. 200:233-248; Winter and Gearhart (1998) Immunol. Rev. 162:89-96.
Another adaptive immunological receptor of interest is the T cell antigen receptor (TCR), which is a heterodimer of two chains, each of which is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily, possessing an N-terminal variable (V) domain, and a C terminal constant domain. The variable domain of the TCR α-chain and β-chain has three hypervariable or complementarity determining regions (CDRs). The β-chain has an additional area of hypervariability (HV4) that does not normally contact antigen. Processes for generating diversity of the TCR are similar to those described for immunoglobulins. The TCR alpha chain is generated by VJ recombination, while the beta chain is generated by V(D)J recombination. Similarly, generation of the TCR gamma chain involves VJ recombination, while generation of the TCR delta chain occurs by V(D)J recombination. The intersection of these specific regions (V and J for the alpha or gamma chain, V D and J for the beta or delta chain) corresponds to the CDR3 region that is important for antigen-MHC recognition. It is the unique combination of the segments at this region, along with palindromic and random N- and P-nucleotide additions, which accounts for the TCR binding repertoire.
While reference is made to binding specificities, and indeed a good deal of serological analysis is based on the physical interactions between antigen and receptor, the underlying cause of the diversity lies in the genetic sequences expressed by lymphocytes, which sequences reflect the myriad processes of recombination, mutation and selection that have acted on the cell. Estimates of immune diversity for antibodies or the related T cell receptors either have attempted to extrapolate from small samples to entire systems or have been limited by coarse resolution of immune receptor genes. However, certain very elementary questions have remained open more than a half-century after being posed: It is still unclear what fraction of the potential repertoire is expressed in an individual at any point in time and how similar repertoires are between individuals who have lived in similar environments. Moreover, because each individual's immune system is an independent experiment in evolution by natural selection, these questions about repertoire similarity also inform our understanding of evolutionary diversity and convergence.
Methods of precisely determining the immune receptor repertoire of an individual, or a sample of interest from an individual, are of great interest for prognosis, diagnosis, and characterization. The present invention addresses that issue.